.. _salt-docs: ========================== Writing Salt Documentation ========================== Salt's documentation is built using the `Sphinx`_ documentation system. It can be built in a large variety of output formats including HTML, PDF, ePub, and manpage. All the documentation is contained in the main Salt repository. Speaking broadly, most of the narrative documentation is contained within the :blob:`doc` subdirectory and most of the reference and API documentation is written inline with Salt's Python code and extracted using a Sphinx extension. .. _`Sphinx`: https://www.sphinx-doc.org/en/master/ .. _docs-style: Style ===== The Salt project recommends the `IEEE style guide`_ as a general reference for writing guidelines. Those guidelines are not strictly enforced but rather serve as an excellent resource for technical writing questions. The `NCBI style guide`_ is another very approachable resource. .. _`IEEE style guide`: https://mentor.ieee.org/myproject/Public/mytools/draft/styleman.pdf .. _`NCBI style guide`: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK993/ Point-of-view ------------- Use third-person perspective and avoid "I", "we", "you" forms of address. Identify the addressee specifically e.g., "users should", "the compiler does", etc. Active voice ------------ Use active voice and present-tense. Avoid filler words. Title capitalization -------------------- Document titles and section titles within a page should follow normal sentence capitalization rules. Words that are capitalized as part of a regular sentence should be capitalized in a title and otherwise left as lowercase. Punctuation can be omitted unless it aids the intent of the title (e.g., exclamation points or question marks). For example: .. code-block:: restructuredtext This is a main heading ====================== Paragraph. This is an exciting sub-heading! -------------------------------- Paragraph. .. _docs-modules: Serial Commas ------------- According to Wikipedia: In English punctuation, a serial comma or series comma (also called Oxford comma and Harvard comma) is a comma placed immediately before the coordinating conjunction (usually "and", "or", or "nor") in a series of three or more terms. For example, a list of three countries might be punctuated either as "France, Italy, and Spain" (with the serial comma), or as "France, Italy and Spain" (without the serial comma)." When writing a list that includes three or more items, the serial comma should always be used. Documenting modules =================== Documentation for Salt's various module types is inline in the code. During the documentation build process it is extracted and formatted into the final HTML, PDF, etc format. Inline documentation -------------------- Python has special multi-line strings called docstrings as the first element in a function or class. These strings allow documentation to live alongside the code and can contain special formatting. For example: .. code-block:: python def my_function(value): """ Upper-case the given value Usage: .. code-block:: python val = 'a string' new_val = myfunction(val) print(new_val) # 'A STRING' :param value: a string :return: a copy of ``value`` that has been upper-cased """ return value.upper() Specify a release for additions or changes ------------------------------------------ New functions or changes to existing functions should include a marker that denotes what Salt release will be affected. For example: .. code-block:: python def my_function(value): """ Upper-case the given value .. versionadded:: 2014.7.0 <...snip...> """ return value.upper() For changes to a function: .. code-block:: python def my_function(value, strip=False): """ Upper-case the given value .. versionchanged:: 2016.3.0 Added a flag to also strip whitespace from the string. <...snip...> """ if strip: return value.upper().strip() return value.upper() Adding module documentation to the index ---------------------------------------- Each module type has an index listing all modules of that type. For example: :ref:`all-salt.modules`, :ref:`all-salt.states`, :ref:`all-salt.renderers`. New modules must be added to the index manually. 1. Edit the file for the module type: :blob:`execution modules `, :blob:`state modules`, :blob:`renderer modules `, etc. 2. Add the new module to the alphebetized list. 3. :ref:`Build the documentation ` which will generate an ``.rst`` file for the new module in the same directory as the ``index.rst``. 4. Commit the changes to ``index.rst`` and the new ``.rst`` file and send a pull request. .. _docs-ref: Cross-references ================ The Sphinx documentation system contains a wide variety of cross-referencing capabilities. .. _docs-ref-glossary: Glossary entries ---------------- Link to :ref:`glossary entries ` using the `term role`_. A cross-reference should be added the first time a Salt-specific term is used in a document. .. _`term role`: https://www.sphinx-doc.org/en/master/glossary.html#term-role .. code-block:: restructuredtext A common way to encapsulate master-side functionality is by writing a custom :term:`Runner Function`. Custom Runner Functions are easy to write. .. _docs-ref-index: Index entries ------------- Sphinx automatically generates many kinds of index entries, but it is occasionally useful to manually add items to the index. One method is to use the `index directive`_ above the document or section that should appear in the index. .. _`index directive`: https://www.sphinx-doc.org/en/master/usage/restructuredtext/directives.html?highlight=index%20directive#index-generating-markup .. code-block:: restructuredtext .. index:: ! Event, event bus, event system see: Reactor; Event Another method is to use the `index role`_ inline with the text that should appear in the index. The index entry is created and the target text is left otherwise intact. .. _`index role`: http://www.sphinx-doc.org/en/master/usage/restructuredtext/basics.html#role-index .. code-block:: restructuredtext Information about the :index:`Salt Reactor` ------------------------------------------- Paragraph. .. _docs-ref-docs: Documents and sections ---------------------- Each document should contain a unique top-level label of the form: .. code-block:: restructuredtext .. _my-page: My page ======= Paragraph. Unique labels can be linked using the `ref role`_. This allows cross-references to survive document renames or movement. .. code-block:: restructuredtext For more information see :ref:`my-page`. Note, the ``:doc:`` role should *not* be used to link documents together. .. _`ref role`: https://www.sphinx-doc.org/en/master/usage/restructuredtext/roles.html#role-ref .. _docs-ref-modules: Modules ------- Cross-references to Salt modules can be added using Sphinx's Python domain roles. For example, to create a link to the :py:func:`test.ping ` function: .. code-block:: restructuredtext A useful execution module to test active communication with a minion is the :py:func:`test.ping ` function. Salt modules can be referenced as well: .. code-block:: restructuredtext The :py:mod:`test module ` contains many useful functions for inspecting an active Salt connection. The same syntax works for all modules types: .. code-block:: restructuredtext One of the workhorse state module functions in Salt is the :py:func:`file.managed ` function. .. _docs-ref-settings: Settings -------- Individual settings in the Salt Master or Salt Minion configuration files are cross-referenced using two custom roles, ``conf_master``, and ``conf_minion``. .. code-block:: restructuredtext The :conf_minion:`minion ID ` setting is a unique identifier for a single minion. .. _docs-ref-fixes: Documentation Changes and Fixes =============================== Documentation changes and fixes should be made against the earliest supported release branch that the update applies to. The practice of updating a release branch instead of making all documentation changes against Salt's main, default branch, ``master``, is necessary in order for the docs to be as up-to-date as possible when the docs are built. The workflow mentioned above is also in line with the recommendations outlined in Salt's :ref:`contributing` page. You can read more about how to choose where to submit documentation fixes by reading the :ref:`which-salt-branch` section. For an explanation of how to submit changes against various branches, see the :ref:`github-pull-request` section. Specifically, see the section describing how to ``Create a new branch`` and the steps that follow. .. _docs-building: Building the documentation ========================== 1. Install Sphinx using a system package manager or pip. The package name is often of the form ``python-sphinx``. There are no other dependencies. 2. Build the documentation using the provided Makefile or ``.bat`` file on Windows. .. code-block:: bash cd /path/to/salt/doc make html 3. The generated documentation will be written to the ``doc/_build/`` directory. 4. A useful method of viewing the HTML documentation locally is to start Python's built-in HTTP server: Python 3: .. code-block:: bash cd /path/to/salt/doc/_build/html python3 -m http.server Python 2: .. code-block:: bash cd /path/to/salt/doc/_build/html python -m SimpleHTTPServer Then pull up the documentation in a web browser at http://localhost:8000/.